WOOL
1. The two great industries of England in the Middle Ages were
=agriculture= and =wool-raising=. The wool was the finest grown in
Europe, and attracted hither merchants from the Continent. They
travelled through England--in the Cotswold and Hampshire districts, for
instance--and bought wool largely. But in pretty early days England
began to =manufacture cloth= of various kinds; and that, too, became an
important article of export. This manufacture was especially strong in
the eastern and western parts of the country.
2. Weavers from Flanders were encouraged to settle in various parts
of England, by several of the Norman kings, soon after the Conquest.
This was the case in Gloucestershire, for example; but the manufacture
declined in the reigns of King John and King Henry III. In the reign of
King Edward III it was again introduced.
3. As the country began to recover from the effects of the Black
Death, the cloth trade became a very flourishing industry, and English
=wool-merchants= became a very wealthy and powerful body. These have
left their mark on the churches of the land pretty plainly. At the end
of the fourteenth century, and in the fifteenth, some of the finest
Decorated and Perpendicular work was done, and a large number of
churches, especially in Suffolk, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire,
have magnificent towers, which were built at this period. It is pretty
safe to say that where to-day you find a little village with a big
church--very much larger than the place now needs--with a good deal of
work belonging to the Decorated and early Perpendicular periods, that
those places were once engaged in some branch or other of the wool and
cloth trades.
4. Many of the fine brasses of which we spoke in a former chapter cover
the graves of merchants "of the staple", as these great wool and cloth
traders were called. Then, too, some of the very finest timbered
houses, with their richly carved fronts, as in Chester and Shrewsbury,
were built at this same time.
5. We have spoken before of the =trade guilds=. These, too, after the
Black Death period, increased in power and wealth. Each guild looked
well after the interests of its own craft. It regulated the number
of apprentices which a craftsman might have, the hours of work, the
rate of pay; it made provision for helping its members in sickness
and need; and it saw to burying them decently when they died. Guilds
took a lively interest in their parish churches, helped sometimes in
forming new schools, hospitals, and alms-houses, and had regular times
for meeting together for business and for feasting. They were good to
their members, but very hard on those who were not of their number.
[Illustration: Guildhall, London. From an old print in the British
Museum]
6. From the members of these trade guilds in a town the town guild, or
=corporation=, was formed to rule the town according to its ancient
customs and charters, and to obtain for the town as many new rights
and privileges as possible. There is much in the corporation of a
great city like London, with its many companies, or guilds, which is
connected with city life and work of the Middle Ages.
=Summary.=--_Wool_ and _agriculture_ were the great industries
of the Middle Ages in England. English wool was an article of
export, and English cloth also, in later times. Norman kings had
introduced Flemish _cloth-workers_ here, but the trade died down
in the time of King Henry III.
After the Black Death it revived greatly, and _wool-merchants_
became a very rich and powerful body. Many of the fine church
towers, in Suffolk, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire especially,
were built by them. This was a period, too, when _trade guilds_
were very strong.